CHS Graduate Develops App to Make Math Fun

Blake Asbill is currently in his third year at UC Davis studying Computer Science Engineering. Blake attended , and was the third generation of his family to graduate from in 2009. During his high school career, Blake was a scholar athlete and SD CIF Champion in the shot put.

Being the oldest of three siblings, it was very difficult for Blake’s younger siblings, Connor, currently 16 and a Jr. at , and Nia, currently 9 and in 4th grade at Magnolia, to get used to him being away at college. Nia had an especially hard time because she and Blake share a tight bond that developed when the Asbills traveled as a family to China to adopt Nia in 2003.  

Last year during one of Blake’s many phone calls home to his little sister, Nia told him she was studying for her 3rd grade multiplication timed test. He recalled taking those tests himself at Magnolia Elementary School. He even had the same 3rd grade teacher, Bobbi Seelig. Blake remembered all the flash cards and practice sheets he relied on to learn his multiplication facts. During their call, Blake had an idea. He told Nia to check email the next day because he was going to write her a simple program to learn her multiplication facts on the computer. She would not need to print out any worksheets and it would be fun. He stayed up all night and produced the game for his sister. She called it "Fast Math." Nia had so much fun with it and it really made learning multiplication facts easy, but it was not an easy thing to share with the rest of her class.

Based on Nia's success with his program, Blake decided to take things a step further and this summer he actually created an App for the "Apple Store" called RoboMath. Apple put it on the App store for $0.99 a download on Sept. 14. Although Blake wrote the code for RoboMath, he needed to find a graphic artist to help create the animation. Fortunately, he found talent close to home by working with his aunt, Anna Pacheco, and her friend, Katie McDermed, also both CHS graduates. Together they created the RoboMath graphics. The robot is what makes this educational game attractive for kids to play. Blake's hope is that anyone with an iPhone, iPad or iTouch will download RoboMath for their kids to help make learning math facts fun.  

Although he’s back at school, Blake has been able to spread the word about RoboMath to the community through family and friends. The response has been tremendous from kids as well as parents who say RoboMath is not only fun and easy, but it also works. A few of Blake's former elementary school teachers spoke about RoboMath in their classrooms at Back-to-School Night as a valuable resource for parents who are looking for an excellent enrichment tool to add to the math curriculum.

Anyone can download RoboMath and if they like it, give it a 5 star review. The more positive reviews Blake has, the higher his App will be placed on the Apple Store. That means more people searching for educational apps will find RoboMath.  It really is a great way for kids to learn multiplication, division, addition and subtraction facts.  

Blake is firm in his belief that like his sister, today’s kids learn from and respond best to technology in education. He is proud of his Carlsbad roots and hopes that many kids will have access to RoboMath.  Of course, adults can brush up on their math skills too!

Click here to go to the Apple Store to purchase RoboMath.

Written By Melina Asbill